United sharp early, but taming Red Bulls isn't easy
By: Craig Stouffer
Examiner Staff Writer
May 20, 2009
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup qualifying: D.C. United 5, Red Bulls 3
Instead of the late-game heroics that earned a come-from-behind win over New York at Giants Stadium on April 26, D.C. United needed just 26 minutes on Wednesday to register a quartet of goals and an insurmountable lead against New York to qualify for entry into the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup later this summer.
However, as most United games have gone this season, the wild 5-3 victory over the Red Bulls – the highest scoring game at RFK since D.C. beat New York, 6-2, in July 2004 – in front of an announced crowd of 5,056 wasn’t exactly decisive.
“It’s hard to keep that pace for a whole 45 [minutes],” said Chris Pontius, who provided the bookends for United’s scoring, with headers in the eighth and 52nd minutes. “Plus, a lot of the guys haven’t been getting a full 90 so they’re not necessarily game fit. So this game, I think, it was partly that and partly New York figuring us out a little bit.”
New York scored on either side of halftime to cut United’s 4-0 lead in half and after Pontius’ second of the night, trimmed the lead to 5-3 with a Jorge Rojas penalty kick.
“We talked about not getting complacement,” said United head coach Tom Soehn, “and we really got complacent. We could’ve let up as many goals as we scored.”
The match was not part of the proper MLS regular season, and as such, only two of teams’ combined 22 starters (Pontius and United defender Bryan Namoff) had been in their respective team’s first eleven in league play the weekend before.
But as both teams came into the night having used a different starting lineup in each of their ten regular-season games, there was no easy explanation for the ease with which United pierced the Red Bulls’ highly set back line.
Pontius broke through in the sixth minute, only to produce a hesitant centering pass, but two minutes later he notched the night’s first goal, charging headfirst onto Christian Gómez’s corner kick.
“I think we could’ve scored six goals, and we got four,” said Pontius. “But I know I had two other chances that I decided to pass but I should’ve been looking to shoot first.”
Ten minutes later, Gómez threaded another ball through New York’s defense, and onrushing Boyzzz Khumalo rounded New York goalkeeper Danny Cepero and had his certain goal finished off by Red Bulls defender Jeremy Hall’s sliding clearance attempt.
Brandon Barklage and Fred each also found the net in quick succession, with the Brazilian’s tally giving United a 4-0 advantage in the 26th minute.
New York midfielder Dane Richards fended off Greg Janicki to pull one back for the visitors just before halftime, and Jorge Rojas cut the deficit to 4-2 before Fred curled a ball in the from the left that was nodded down by Pontius for a 5-2 margin.
When Janicki was called for a handball in the 61st minute, Rojas again pulled the visitors back, this time from the penalty spot, one of nine second-half shots for the Red Bulls.
“I think maybe it was an absent mind, guys thinking the game was probably already over,” said United goalkeeper Josh Wicks (5 saves). “We had a nice lead, and some of the guys trying to take their foot of the gas a little bit, trying to conserve when maybe we should not conserve but play our best all through the game – not go to goal all the time, but still play a hundred in every ball, every tackle.”
